Sunny Worthing

Sunny Worthing did not disappoint today . It was a stunning evening in our borough!

We were back at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church garden. Val and Rik had a list of jobs for us divided into heavy, medium and light jobs so everyone could choose what they wanted to do.

John chose the heavy slab re positioning helped by Belindabefore they headed over to help on the other side of the garden.

Gillybean and Barbara were working on some major pruning of the large shrubs whilst Ryan and Sarah were doing some removal of stink Iris and weeding too.

With everyone pitching in to clearing ivy and tidying up of the debris , it was a great team activity and as ever, friendly vibes too.

Enjoy the sunshine team !

See you next week at Kamelia Kids

Julia x

The oh so elusive sun was still shining as the team gathered at St Botolph's to continue the battle against the unwanted growth, to allow the less invasive to thrive

A friend in weed is a friend in deed

Before our final task instructions were issued Gill dived straight into removing weeds around the base of the church, joined enthusiastically by Roxy when she arrived

Tools rushed in, where angels feared to tread

Sue (our Sue!) and Belinda headed off to help Sue (task owner Sue) collect the tools we would need to defeat the weeds and ivy that have clearly been enjoying the mixed weather more than some of us have.

The Ivy League of GoodGymers

Once the full team were on site we tackled the task with gusto! Weeds were pulled, ivy was stripped, bushes were trimmed, and stinking Iris evicted.

*Monday Fun Day *

With rain forecast (again) we were lucky to find another window in the weather to return to one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church.

When we arrived, our task host Val had a clearly illustrated on a cork board a choice of tasks that she would like done.

Barbara Daisy and John got stuck straight into the tasks whilst Belinda and i headed off down the road to Heene Community rooms garden which GG have been working on all winter to do some weeding and planting. Sue and Paula also arrived and joined the St Botolphs based team.

With two tasks happening alongside one another, its a good thing that GG Worthing are such an authentic group and don't claim extra good deeds !

Great job everyone !

See you all next week :)

Julia x

After a delightfully sunny weekend I was feeling hopeful that we may be lucky and avoid another drenching.....

WRONG Within 2 minutes of arriving the rain started we all got drenched and filthy with mud!

Despite this our hosts Val and Rik were pleased to see us for our first visit of the year to them ( although they weren't too keen on the rain ! )

We had clear instructions from Val to dig over ,weed and plant up some small and medium sized shrubs that Val had brought along with her.

Whilst my team got stuck ( in the mud) I loaded up my car with the wet and muddy debris from last time and took the blue bags down to the seafront where they will ( hopefully) be picked up by our amazing refuse team.

By the time I got back to the task the weather had gone from bad to worse so we quickly concentrated on planting up the shrubs ( no need to water them in! ) followed by gutter surfing our shoes to get the mud off ( and in Barbara's case jumping with wild abandon in the puddles! )

All the photos represent just how wet and miserable it was! With this in mind I wanted to say a massive thank you to Gillybean and Barbara who were fresh from their long volunteering stint at Brighton marathon on Sunday together with Paul and Belinda You all deserve extra kudos for ploughing on in those weather conditions and not complaining once! 👏 👏👏👏

Let's hope the weather improves for the pond maintenance next Monday 🙏

Stay dry and have a great week.

Thanks everyone 🥰

Julia xx

Rain, Rain, can you just go away

Oh my goodness - after a sunny morning and early afternoon that showed so much promise for a light and dry GG task, on arrival, we were faced with the worst of the worst . It was dark, wind, rain and a chill factor that was not pleasant.

Barbara, after a challenging few months of illness and injury, was immediately told to go home - obviously she didn't! but thank goodness she didn't hang around too long - we want our very special Babs back to best ASAP !

It was so nice to see Paula back to a Monday task and what a glorious night of weather that she chose for it!

Thank you also to Johnand Daisy who also turned out in the horrible weather to try and finish this ongoing project.

Massive thanks to Belinda who was on her photography duty again ( wishing her poorly thumb a speedy recovery )

Digging in

With hoods up and garden forks in hand we got down to the heart of the digging and weeding. Another night where we were so grateful for Uncle Ivo's lights!

45 minutes later and enough was enough ! We down tooled and attempted to remove the cloggy mud from our shoes.

I think its fair to say that we were not dorry to say goodbye ! What we really need is a decent GG jacket for nights like this .......

Have a great week.

Julia xx

Sunday rewind

It had been a very successful Brighton half marathon for 5 of our group. Sue W, Sue A, Ricky ( who got a PB) Paul and John all did brilliantly battling a vicious easterly wind in the the last 5 k of the course. Massive kudos to Belinda and John too who were the intrepid supporters and who stood in the freezing weather watching and photographing everyone before getting soaked in the torrential wind and rain getting home afterwards.

Monday fun day

Luckily the weather had calmed down by Monday evening for our visit to Heene Community Centre gardens where we have a bit of a winter project on the go!

It was a surprise to welcome Nick back to GG. Nick had achieved some fantastic results the day before with 2 gold medals and 1 bronze in his regional ballroom and latin dance competition. With the attraction of spending quality time with his wonderful wife together with the idea of a social and food afterwards, it meant he turned up with a garden fork and spade in hand, ready for some digging!

John and Paul also fell in with the digging crew whilst Belinda arrived for some more photographic duties whilst her poorly thumb gets better.

It was all going smoothly with some great progress until Nick got obsessed with a stubborn root that he refused to leave and 'cover it over' as i requested ( quite a number of times,) Even Paulagreed with me but no, clearly I'm not th boss at home or on a GG task!

Craig to the rescue but then I realised he was just as stubborn as the flippin' tree root ( and Nick!) Whilst the focus was on this root, Paul, John and myself were just getting on with the original brief of the task. We did a great job digging, weeding and carefully replanting any valuable plants that we could rescue whilst the other two continued with their own agenda !

Job done

Thank goodness Craig and Nick finally got that root out! Belinda recorded everything and then we went to the pub for drinks and 50% off food ! Happy days !

See you all next week for ( hopefully ) the final chapter of the Heene rooms

Have a great week !

Julia xx